


Embers

by erericultist



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Bittersweet, Christmas, Christmas Miracle, EreRi Secret Santa Gift!!, Fluff, Happy Ending, Levimas, M/M, One Shot, Paganism, Reincarnation, Short Story, Spirits, Wicca, Yule, after canon, aot - Freeform, attack on titan - Freeform, eren x levi - Freeform, ereri, hbd Levi, levi x eren - Freeform, riren - Freeform, rivaere - Freeform, shingeki no kyojin - Freeform, snk, somber, star crossed lovers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-25
Updated: 2018-12-25
Packaged: 2019-09-26 06:15:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,524
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17136515
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/erericultist/pseuds/erericultist
Summary: The coldest, darkest time of the year is when the veil between what is mortal and ethereal is thinnest. So much joy and cheer derives from this time of darkness. Yet, Levi remains solemn without a clue as to why.





	Embers

**Author's Note:**

  * For [My best bud!! TheArtfulWitch](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=My+best+bud%21%21+TheArtfulWitch).



> Happy birthday Levi!  
> And Merry Christmas/Happy Holidays to everyone else!  
> I’m your secret Santa Noir! I really hope you’ll like this, it’s a bit more bitter sweet than you may have originally wanted... I did my best to do something special for you ;;;

Snow flutters down from the thick, black cloak of the night sky. They catch the lantern lights and twinkle in place of the stars who hibernate this time of year. Snow crunches beneath the feet of pedestrians. Children ice skate beneath fairy lights, smiles plastered to their wind-chapped faces with snotty noses. Couples gather by a gazebo in the park, huddled and bundled around a bonfire while musicians play classical Christmas tunes.   
  


The cold passes through Levi as air does in the lungs. Natural as ever, unhindered by his presence. The accumulation of joy, light and warmth in the coldest, darkest time of year attracts Levi to come out and see how the world has changed.   
  


If one were to see, he sticks out like a sore thumb. His attire dated and tattered from ages before, a cravat at his neck and straps to hold weaponry at his thighs. His ears exposed with his militant haircut, bangs only reaching his eyes and parted in the middle. The emblem that is sewn onto his back has been forgotten by time itself. Everyone else around him is dawned in scarves, hats and mitts alike.   
  


If only the cold was something for him to feel. Levi bites his lip, staring into the fire with his arms folded at his chest.    
  


The music reminds him of something that was once important to him... that he cannot quite place. Men in each other's arms, women and other folk alike dance together to the music. Careful of the ice, they rock together in embrace. A void forms in Levi's chest. He is surrounded by so many people... and yet it only makes his solitude harder to bear. There is not a soul that he can join.   
  


"Captain," a low, husky, voice emerges from behind him.   
  


The void in Levi's chest is replaced by an essence of vitality, love, adoration... he whips around, a thudding sensation gathering in his ribs. He is met with a pair of familiar eyes. Emerald as the day he first saw them, smoldering with intensity. Eren.   
  


He's barefoot, in a pair of trousers and an open sweater. His hair is pulled back from his— gorgeous— face. Levi's gaze softens, reaching out to caress Eren's cheek. Their contact generates a fuzz to the senses, not cold nor warm. If Levi is not careful, his touch may phase through him. 

  
Their feet leave no imprint in the snow. Their weight has no gravity, and their voices are soundless.   
  


Eren leans into Levi's palm lovingly, eyes drifting shut a moment to press his lips against Levi's hand. He takes Levi's wrist, kissing his palm affectionately. Stoic as ever, but with just a tinge of color flushing his cheeks, Levi clears his throat. Their bodies gravitate closer to one another, and Eren's arm circles at Levi's waist.   
  


The veil is thinnest during Yule. It purveys a time for spirits to frolic amongst the mortal's in their shadow. Eren and Levi, both, died a long time ago. Apart, unable to truly rejoin one another in death. Their link binds them to walk amongst the earth, unable to rest without their physical remnants being reunited.    
  


"Do you remember what time of the year this is?" Eren inquires, guiding Levi out onto the stone ground and in the open where other couples dance together.   
  


Levi is silent, his memory not entirely intact with the millennia he's wandered without a sense of date or time. He clings to Eren, what familiarity and comfort Eren brings him is like a dabble back into when he once lived. Why does he feel so much sorrow lurking beneath the surface?   
  


"It is your birthday," Eren murmurs, beginning to lead Levi to the rhythm of the music. Their feet move in unison, grace and flawlessly without fear of slipping. They hover slightly off the ground with each step.    
  


"My birth..." Levi echoes back, attempting to recollect it brings a dull pain to his head. The hum of the violin rings in his ears and flows through him, bringing back the steps to a dance he may of long forgotten. If this had been when they lived, Levi surely would have stepped on Eren's foot by now.    
  


Eren bows down, forehead against Levi's. Levi, his precious Levi. Captain, mentor and lover. They came to untimely ends and are damned for it. Eren is satisfied to roam eternity with Levi, forever by his side. Perhaps there will be a day that they will be buried together, but that is not today. If it will ever come, Eren does not know.   
  


Levi hugs himself to Eren's chest, their proximity generating warmth. Times like this, Levi can hear the echo of Eren's heart against his chest and it gives him asylum. "I want to feel you again, to truly feel you," Levi tries to hold Eren tighter, but the solidity of Eren's body the more desperate he becomes. The music is nothing but a blur in the background, and Levi fears what may happen if he opens his eyes.   
  


"I know," Eren's voice replies faintly. "I love you, Levi,"   
  


The twinkling of Christmas lights and bonfires are blinding, so much so through even closed eyes. The light engulfs all that is around them.   
  


...   
  


The sheer of bedsheets glides against Levi's stark body, his eyes still clenched shut. He is on his back, lashes wet with tears and hands instinctively fumbling out his surroundings for his lover's form. Crackling of a furnace emanates from the other side of the room, and for the first time in ages, he can feel it. The warmth it gives off hugs Levi's senses with a gentle invitation to open his eyes.   
  


"Happy birthday, love," Eren is the first to greet Levi's eyes as he opens them. He stands in a doorway for what appears to be a bathroom, a towel hanging lowly at his hips with his long, wet hair dripping onto his muscular shoulders.    
  


Levi's jaw drops a bit, rasping in a shallow breath and looking around in skepticism that this is real. He places a palm over his own chest, looking down at his nude body. His heart thuds back against his hand from within, and that alone is enough to startle him. He, is physical, mortal, and very much alive. He scoffs with a tear daring to roll down his cheek.   
  


Eren was brought back to the living with the impression he stood under rainfall, a lone wolf as he died as with anguish in his bones. But rather— the rain was warm and smelled of lilac rather than copper crimson...    
  


Levi sits up, glancing out the window. They're a bit above the street, a home atop a shop, overlooking the cars that pass by in the snowy, winter dusk.    
"It's real," Eren draws Levi's attention back to him. His smile, no longer transparent or blurred by the veil, but real and brilliant as ever. Levi outstretches a hand to him, in which Eren obliged to without hesitation. One hand holding up the towel at his waist, the other in Levi's grasp. He pulls Eren to crawl onto the bed. The towel is inevitably dropped and tossed out of the way.    
  


Levi marvels at the texture of Eren's palms in his, the heft and dampness. He wraps Eren into his arms, scooting out from under the sheets and basks in Eren's scent. His nose buried into the crook of Eren's neck, not caring of the wet hair that will stick to his skin nor the shivers it brings to his spine. Eren hums, a hand draping itself at Levi's nape. Neither of them question it aloud, no, this is too precious to waste away with why's and how's.

  
So long, he wanted to be in the security of Eren's hold. Eren kisses the top of Levi's head, sniffling. Levi's nails dig into Eren's biceps, knowing damn well they're both close to blubbering. Levi returns Eren's kiss with a playful peck under his jaw, smiling with a weak chuckle interrupted by a sob. 

 

Eren's hands fumble at Levi's torso to help scoop him up into his lap. They're both struggling to close the space off between one another, hands tangling in hair and kisses lavishing their necks.    
  


Eren hisses, Levi's nails break the skin, but the pain only adds to the buzzing of sensation in his head. He groans, both finally finding one another's lips midst sloppily placed kisses and not letting go.    
Levi pushes himself up on his knees, cupping either side of Eren's face. His lips, Eren's lips, his tongue, hot and wet with a hint of honey in taste. They're numbing, but in the best way Levi could fathom.   
  


When the veil is thinnest during Yule, and the soul truly desires one thing above all mortality... there is nothing to stop them from coming true. Life gifted to lovers from centuries ago, love deemed unhindered by time. As strong as the wind that once passed through them, eternal as the flame it feeds. There is no denying them or what they share, for at Christmas time is when love is to bear.    
  


**Author's Note:**

> I wanted to take what happened in the most recent chapters of the manga... acknowledge them, and find a way to show that the angst they’re enduring isn’t eternal. Something to show that in another life, they can truly be happy.  
> Also! Special thanks to everyone who volunteered to beta! Tasha, YmirCultist, Ana, Carmen, and Moshi! Y’all the best bitches <3


End file.
